I'll share mine to kick the discussion - I tried to think of real new features, but obviously feel free to chime in about incremental improvements!

1/ AUTOMATIC focus peeking - show me which pictures are sharp and where, straight in grid mode. Allow me to choose the target resolution that defines peeking - some of my D800E pictures are "blurry" if I'm pixel peeping, but perfectly fine for a 10x15cm (4x6in) or for web usage. In survey mode, in many cases, this would allow me to choose the best candidate instantaneously.

2/ State of the art Face Recognition and corresponding auto-keywording - Adobe should just count the number of web articles describing how to leverage Picasa to emulate that in LR...

3/ Still on the subject of automatic recognition, an INTELLIGENT "find similar images" across all a library - academic research on the subject is showing incredible results - let's find some of that in LR4 ?

4/ AUTOMATIC straighten the horizon - Aperture does it, I shouldn't have to draw a line at the horizon or to the side of the building to straighten my picture, those features are visible enough in the photograph most of the time - "just do it".

5/ AUTOMATIC selection of series of consecutive or near consecutive similar images - Aperture does it. It would be great to be able to do that in survey mode, with a key to go from one series to the next.

Re-reading my list, I'm realizing most of the enhancements are addressing the editing workflow, rather than the "develop and process" - it's probably that I really can't see what's missing... I'm on Adobe's Creative Cloud, so, for complex edition jobs, LR4 and Photoshop together have all that I need and (much, much) more.

4/ AUTOMATIC straighten the horizon - Aperture does it, I shouldn't have to draw a line at the horizon or to the side of the building to straighten my picture, those features are visible enough in the photograph most of the time - "just do it".

[..]

But supposing I don't want the (assumed) horizon to be straight? Can't I have a choice?

But supposing I don't want the (assumed) horizon to be straight? Can't I have a choice?

Anthony.

Give Lightroom a try -- you'll find that there's no image adjustment that just happens without your opting in first. What Stephane is describing would look like any other "automatic" adjustment in LR -- you'd check a box and then it would happen.

Add the ability in Develop to right click on an image in the film strip and specify the Copy Name without having to switch to Library & back (Copy Name is a Metadata field).

I often create Virtual Copies in Develop to create different versions of an image, then use the Copy Name as part of the file name during exports - this feature would greatly speed up the process of creating and naming Virtual Copies.

This shouldn't be a big change - there are already quite a few commands available by right clicking on the filmstrip. Beyond my request, other people might value having a more general ability to set a few frequently used Metadata fields by right clicking (for example, from Slideshow if you forgot to set a caption or title).

Add the ability in Develop to right click on an image in the film strip and specify the Copy Name without having to switch to Library & back (Copy Name is a Metadata field).

I often create Virtual Copies in Develop to create different versions of an image, then use the Copy Name as part of the file name during exports - this feature would greatly speed up the process of creating and naming Virtual Copies.

This shouldn't be a big change - there are already quite a few commands available by right clicking on the filmstrip. Beyond my request, other people might value having a more general ability to set a few frequently used Metadata fields by right clicking (for example, from Slideshow if you forgot to set a caption or title).

+1 on this one - like all good ideas it becomes obvious once you read it! And it's something I've done often by using Photoshop:

- create virtual copy in LR4- apply gradient (typically, to recover the sky or balance light in an interior shot)- send initial file and the file with the gradient as layers to photoshop- mask away foreground elements in photoshop- flatten and come back to LR4...

Having an erase brush in the gradient panel (just like the one for local adjustments) would save me all that cycle.

+1 on this one - like all good ideas it becomes obvious once you read it! And it's something I've done often by using Photoshop:

- create virtual copy in LR4- apply gradient (typically, to recover the sky or balance light in an interior shot)- send initial file and the file with the gradient as layers to photoshop- mask away foreground elements in photoshop- flatten and come back to LR4...

Having an erase brush in the gradient panel (just like the one for local adjustments) would save me all that cycle.

Can't you just do this with the adjustment brush? Say you use a gradient for less exposure, then just apply the brush with plus exposure.

Can't you just do this with the adjustment brush? Say you use a gradient for less exposure, then just apply the brush with plus exposure.

Jim

In theory yes - except that the brush is not going to be "graduated", making the process more complicated than it should be, you would have to juglle with "flow" or several versions of the brush. Masking in PS is just more convenient - and being able to do it in LR would be just great (that's exactly what an "erase" brush would be doing).

Adobe aren't going to give you any of the "advanced" features of PS because there would be less need to buy PS. If they did how much more would you pay for them? A lot of users are wanting less of what is there now because of bloat. Be careful about what you wish for.

The big one : parametric panorama (or HDR, but I'd prefer panorama first if I had to choose) stitching. That would be a game-changer.

A little one : during import, making the backup copy of the raw files mirror the directory structure of the originals referenced in the catalog, instead of the "Imported on April 34th" heap. That could make the data reconstruction less painful.